Drake's Surprise Album Debuts At Number One

Canadian rapper Drake has taken the top spot on the Billboard 200 with his surprise album If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The title—which has been available for less than a week—moved 535,000 units (a mixture of pure sales and equivalent streams), taking the number one position with relative ease. Of those 535,000, almost 500,000 (495,000 to be exact)—enough to get a gold certification on an album or single—were from people purchasing the album on iTunes.

Out of nowhere last week, the twenty eight year old uploaded what was initially expected to be a mixtape, but later turned out to be an album (if only in the sense that it was for sale instead of given away), onto the digital storefront, causing an uproar that hasn’t been seen since Beyoncé did the same thing with her latest.

This is Drake’s fourth time in a row at number one—an impressive feat for any artist. In fact, all four of his full lengths have hit the top spot, a feat only matched (and beaten by one) in the hip-hop world by DMX.

Drake’s road to becoming one of the biggest names in hip-hop was a short one. He had been recording and releasing mixtapes in the underground for only a few years before he officially hit the charts with his first big hit “Best I Ever Had”, which went to number two in the US in 2009. Since then, he has charted four number one albums, and an additional three top ten entries (including an EP and two compilations), not to mention almost forty top 40 tracks.

In just six years, he has racked up an incredible 22 Grammy nominations (including three for Album of the Year, though only ever as a featured artist), winning only one.

Interestingly, despite the immediate success of If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, his label has not yet announced any plans to issue the album on any physical mediums, so if you were hoping to run out to the store and pick up a copy on CD, you may never get your chance. You may want to wait for later this year, when the rapper is expected to drop another complete album, Views From The 6.

Right behind the rapper is the Fifty Shades of Grey soundtrack, which clocked about half as many sales as Drake. Had it not been for him, the movie’s companion compilation would have nabbed to coveted slot, though that’s not to say that it won’t in the coming weeks.